December 12, 2007

Is the CIA a "Fifth Column"?

Why was the declassified summary of the latest Iran NIE drafted, as I believe it was, in such a way as to subvert U.S. policy toward Iran? Why do officials at the CIA regularly leak information that undermines the Bush administration? Why do left-wing journalists like Seymour Hersh and James Risen enjoy so much access to closely held intelligence information? Do the personnel who staff this vital intelligence bureaucracy see themselves as dispassionate civil servants dedicated to the craft of intelligence or something else?

As to the question of whether or not the CIA is a fifth column, I thought that question was answered back in July 2006, and if anything, it's only become larger and more pervasive.

And while we're talking about questions, Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor at The Australian also has a few:

The CIA has been in semi-open revolt against the Bush administration for years now. I may be an old-fashioned sort of a fellow but it has always seemed to me that an American citizen had two alternatives in life. Either he could campaign publicly against the president, or he could be a secret intelligence officer. The CIA has apparently decided you can do both, simultaneously. Imagine the outcry if there were a liberal Democrat president and right-wing elements of the intelligence community were constantly leaking and briefing against the administration.

Clearly, it has become glaringly obvious that at this point, our entire intelligence community - and especially the CIA, is more a national embarassment than an asset. And the answer to Gabriel Schoenfeld's first question, "Is the CIA a fifth column," the answer is yes.